Newlyweds

Our first year of marriage seems like ages ago!... We had so much fun getting to know each other and learning to live together. I have always hated being alone in a house, so marriage suited me just fine! Andrew moved into where I was living so the change wasn't as big for me. A month after our wedding we traveled to Europe as chaperones on a high school World War 2 tour. It was amazing. 3 months later Andrew went to Seminary!

We attended more weddings than we could count that year, but we loved it.

In this pic we are at my high school and college friend/room mate Kamian's wedding in La Jolla

We loved visiting family together...especially seeing our only (then) niece joy who got all our love and attention!

Celebrating Joy's first birthday. I loved watching Andrew interact with her...made me excited to have kids and see him be a daddy!

It was fun to be a part of an office with office parties to bring my handsome hubby to: this was my office Christmas party in Westlake. Andrew was such a support and encouragement to me as I balanced learning to be a wife, caring for our home as well as working full time.

Our first Christmas together was spent with my parents in AZ. We had so much fun! My dad rented quads for the week and we tore up the neighborhood :)

For our first Anniversary, my parents spoiled us with a romantic getaway to Sedona AZ. What a beautiful place! We had a relaxing time thanking God for our year together and were so excited as we looked toward the future and all that we had planned (and not planned!)

I have so many happy memories from our first year: evening walks after dinner, hanging out with our friends, talks in the car during our long commute to and from church, moving from suburbia to the crazy valley ( I had a slight meltdown and was convinced I was going to die in the 405/101 interchange) dinners out, late movies, crazy apartment neighbors, picnics, most of all coming home to each other every day.

The Lord blessed us with a sweet first year with little conflict and lots of fun!

I love you babe and love our marriage!

Garden Bisque

Another soup recipe because we love soup! This is a great spring soup packed with veggies...use whatever you have on hand!

Garden Bisque

5 carrots diced

5 red potatoes diced

4 garlic cloves minced

3 crowns broccoli chopped

2 leeks thinly sliced

1 onion diced

Combine all veggies in a large soup pot with 5 cups chicken stock plus water if needed to cover the veggies. Throw in some dried basil, parsley, dill and a couple bay leaves ( or herbs of your liking) and bring to a boil. Simmer until veggies are soft.

Puree the veggies and broth, then return to pot. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in 1/2 cup half-n-half. Serve with a drizzle of good quality olive oil and Enjoy!

Celebrating Palm Sunday- Hosanna!

Sweeties

I decided to clean out my camera memory card and here are my little guys just being them!

Weston loves watching people working in the yard...this day he was learning how to use the (bubble)mower

This guy always eats and loves to eat!

They both love to sit on the couch and drink their beverage of choice...they are like camels all day constantly drinking and thirsty! Love them!

Getting Ready for Easter...

We have had fun around here preparing for Easter and welcoming spring! I made and froze these yummy pink coconut cookies for our Easter celebration...they are rich and delicate at the same time with a melt in your mouth yumminess and the perfect balance between sweet and salty!

Here's the recipe:

Coconut Easter Cookies

2 sticks butter room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for coating the cookies once baked

1 tsp coconut extract

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup ground sweetened coconut flakes ( I used a food processor to do this)

2 drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F

Beat butter on high until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low and beat in the coconut extract, ground coconut, food coloring and salt. Stir in the flour by hand just until blended.

Cover and refrigerate for 15 min.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls or egg shapes and bake 10-12 minutes or until cookies are pale golden on the bottom. Remove cookies to a cooling rack for 5 minutes and then roll in the powdered sugar. Let cookies cool completely on wire racks before storing. You can dust cookies again with powdered sugar before serving if desired.

Then I found a fun project in my Martha Stewart Living magazine to make coffee filter flowers to decorate for spring! They are easy and were free for me since I had a ton of filters and food coloring on hand.

Mix a few batches of colors in water in pie plates or shallow dishes.

Place a stack of filters in each color and allow them to absorb as much as you want. I used white and brown filters and mixed a few colors for some of them.

Keep the filters together as they dry on a rack. It took almost a full day for them to dry completely.

Once they are dry, trim the filters to make different kinds of flowers then using a glue gun to secure the layers.

Here are the finished flowers:

We have also had fun teaching Weston about Easter and the gospel, and I found this fun craft in Noel Piper's book " Treasuring God in our Traditions" to make an "Easter mountain".

Basically you make a big batch of play dough, paint and bake it in the oven to harden it. We made a cross from sticks in the backyard and the back of the mountain has a tomb with a stone to roll away :) He LOVED helping make this!

Most days he plays with the cross like an airplane, but he is beginning to understand!

Almost 5 years!

In a couple of weeks we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary! I am already starting to get sentimental about it! This is a big year for us...5 years of marriage, 5 years of seminary finished in May and I turn 30 :) I had fun looking through some old pics tonight and these are from one of our engagement shoots. It's so fun to look back and see all that the Lord has done! Be prepared for more sentimental posts :)

Warm weather

Enjoyed playing in the sprinklers this evening with the boys...getting excited for summer!